Ramblings on bookish matters. Horror and fantasy have the lion’s share, but not exclusively. Occasional interviews, art posts and bumblings.

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Is the David Gemmell Legend Award doing any good to the fantasy literature at the moment?

I
reflected for a long time before making the yesterday’s post, but in the end
went for it only to give this new post a starting point. There were a couple of discussionsback in 2010, if I am not mistaken, that questioned the importance
of the David Gemmell Legend Award for the fantasy genre. 3 years from then and
looking over this year’s long lists it seems that nothing changed and nothing
good came out of those talks.

The
idea of an award dedicated entirely to the fantasy genre gives immense joy and
when David Gemmell Legend Award came into existence thrilled me. And with
mission statement such as “raise public
awareness of the fantasy genre”, “celebrate
the history and cultural importance of fantasy literature”, “appreciate and reward excellence in the field”
and “commemorate the legacy of David
Gemmell and his contribution to the fantasy genre” I believed that only the
best of things could have come out of this. 5 years later I am not entirely
sure that it would happen.

Let’s
consider the 2013 long lists. There are only 9 publishers on the long lists and
all are major ones. Nothing wrong with their presence here, but are these the
only imprints “raising the awareness of
the fantasy genre”? How about the small publishing houses and the amazing
job they are doing in actually celebrating the history and cultural importance
of fantasy literature? What struck me as even odder is the absence of any title
published by The Black Library. After winning the Legend Award for Best Novel
in 2010 through Graham McNeill’s “Empire”, the Morningstar Award for
Best Newcomer through Darius Hinks’ “Warrior Priest” and the Ravenheart
Award for Best Fantasy Cover Art through Raymond
Swanland’s cover of “Blood of
Aenarion” by William King it
seems that Black Library stopped releasing suitable works for David Gemmell
Legend Award.

What
I loved at David Gemmell Legend Award even from its beginnings was that it
considered all the fantasy works published in English. It was wonderful to see Andrezj Sapkowski winning the award in
2009 for “Blood of Elves” and Pierre Pevel recognized as Best Newcomer the following year
for “The Cardinal’s Blades”. It is
excellent to see all the Australian fantasy present on the long or short lists
of the awards. But it saddens me to see so many great titles left outside the
lists of the David Gemmell Legend Award because it is a sign of failing another
of its mission statements, that of “appreciating
and rewarding excellence in the field”. How can it not fail when Margo Lanagan’s “The Brides of Rollrock Island”, Lisa Hannett & Angel Slatter’s “Midnight and Moonshine”, Mike
Carey, Linda Carey and Louise Carey’s
“The Steel Seraglio” (released in
the UK this year under the title “The
City of Silk and Steel”), Daniel
Rabuzzi’s “The Indigo Pheasant”,
K.J. Parker’s “Sharps”, Tim Lebbon’s “The Heretic Land”, Graham Joyce’s “Some Kind of Fairy Tale”, N.K.
Jemisin’s “The Killing Moon” and
“The Shadowed Sun”, Howard Andrew Jones’ “The Bones of the Old Ones”, Brom’s “Krampus, the Yule Lord” or Jeff
Salyards’ “Scourge of the Betrayer”,
just to name the 2012 favorites of mine that should have been at least on the
long lists in my opinion, and the popular writers and titles like Robin Hobb’s “City of Dragons”, G. Willow
Wilson’s “Alif the Unseen”, Mark Lawrence’s “King of Thorns”, Michael J.
Sullivan’s “Percepliquis”, Bradley Beaulieu’s “The Straits of Galahesh”, Paul
S. Kemp’s “The Hammer and the Blade”,
Anne Lyle’s “The Alchemy of Souls” or Rachel
Hartman’s “Seraphina” are
nowhere to be found.

Of
course, I am subjective in my choice, but that is a luxury the David Gemmell
Legend Award doesn’t afford. When you want to promote, bring awareness and
reward the excellence of the fantasy literature a long list of titles from a
handful of publishers would not bring you any closer to your objectives. It is
my opinion that it will actually lead you further away from them. As long as
the David Gemmell Legend Award will fail to notice an important part of the books
published around the fantasy literature I am afraid I will have no interest in
following the events surrounding it. I didn’t’ reach this conclusion and do not
make this statement with resentment, it is only with the disappointment in
seeing such a promising, full of potential award failing heavily.

The long list, as far as I was aware, was simply what any publisher could be bothered to send in. If Black Library or whoever aren't there, I reckon it's cos they didn't send anything in.

I wouldn't worry anyway - as this is a publically voted award, it is usually the author with the most organised fanbase that wins. As good a criteria as anything other, some might argue, but certainly nothing to suggest that this award should be taken seriously by anyone except a corporate marketing department low on genuine ideas.

There's nothing corporate in the Gemmell Awards. They are organised and run by a bunch of authors, friends of the late David Gemmell, who raise funds by themselves. One of the chief organisers has also recently passed away. The awards have also moved this year from their traditional June slot all the way back to November, and the change seems to have caught the publishers by surprise, with them not submitting work. I find it improbable that Voyager and Black Library would voluntarily not submit work when they have done in the past and even won.

From the look of it, this year's organisation is in disarry, understandably, due to Deborah Miller's sad passing. Hopefully the organiers sort something out and get those missing publishers on board.

If Black Library hasn't sent in anything, then surely that's even more cause for concern? They themselves went through a major reorganisation in Dec/Jan and since then their marketing has been sporadic at best. They are looking internally and are not engaging with the industry all that much. One of the biggest proofs of this? I don't know of a single reviewer who has gotten any ARCs for the Feb'2013 releases and on.

It is my belief that in order to make such an award strong and meaningful it needs more than just titles that are submitted for consideration. In this case, with only 9 major publishers on the long lists it misses a very big part of what was published within the genre. I completely understand that David Gemmell Legend Award is made on voluntary basis and recently was confronted with Deborah Miller's sad passing, but it needs a bit more effort to sustain it and make it better. This way, it ends up exactly as Jon said, an award that is not taken seriously by anyone except a corporate marketing department low on genuine ideas. This is certainly not the way to bring awareness to the fantasy literature, on the contrary it puts this wonderful genre in a bad light. Maybe after the putting their organisation back in order David Gemmell Award would make something worthwhile for fantasy.